BRIDGETOWN: West Indies captain Kieron Pollard hoisted two sixes in an unbeaten top score of 22 to lift his side to 85 for five batting first against Pakistan before the rain-ravaged first Twenty20 International of the four-match series at Kensington Oval was abandoned in Barbados on Wednesday.

With the match reduced to nine overs-per-side after steady rain intervened following the toss to delay the start of play by almost three hours, the home side sent out their celebrated power-hitters in what was always going to be a frenetic passage of play.

However Pakistan’s array of varied bowling talent stymied the early effort and also inflicted injury when opening batsmen Lendl Simmons took a blow on the neck attempting to hook a short ball from debutant seam bowling all-rounder Mohammad Wasim and was forced to retire hurt.

Another seamer, Hasan Ali, responded to the challenge with two overs in which he conceded only 11 runs while claiming the wickets of the other opener, Evin Lewis, and Shimron Hetmyer.

Nicholas Pooran struck two sixes before falling victim to the spin of veteran Mohammad Hafeez for 13, the next best individual score, although 14 extras were also conceded by the Pakistanis.

More rain swept across the ground just as the innings came to an end, further jeopardising the prospects of a definitive result at the start of a series in which one match has already been cut from the schedule due to a two-day delay in the preceding One-day International series against Australia at the same venue.

That interruption was caused by a Covid 19 positive test of a non-playing member of the West Indies staff just before the scheduled start of the second ODI last Thursday.

Scoreboard

WEST INDIES:

L.M.P. Simmons retired hurt9

E. Lewis c Shaheen b Hasan6

C.H. Gayle c Hasan b Wasim7

N. Pooran c Shadab b Hafeez13

A.D. Russell c Rizwan b Usman7

K.A. Pollard not out22

S.O. Hetmyer c Rizwan b Hasan5

J.O. Holder not out2

EXTRAS (LB-8, W-6)14

TOTAL (for five wkts, 9 overs)85

FALL OF WKTS: 1-16 (Lewis), 2-37 (Pooran), 3-51 (Russell), 4-51 (Gayle), 5-71 (Hetmyer).

DID NOT BAT: D.J. Bravo, H.R. Walsh, A.J. Hosein.

BOWLING: Shaheen Shah Afridi 2-0-20-0 (1w); Mohammad Wasim 2-0-20-1 (1w); Hasan 2-0-11-2; Mohammad Hafeez 1-0-12-1; Shadab Khan 1-0-8-0; Usman Qadir 1-0-6-1.

NOTE: Simmons retired hurt at 16-0.

PAKISTAN: Sharjeel Khan, Mohammad Rizwan, Babar Azam, Fakhar Zaman, Mohammad Hafeez, Azam Khan, Shadab Khan, Hasan Ali, Mohammad Wasim, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Usman Qadir.

RESULT: Match abandoned; four-match series levelled at 0-0.

UMPIRES: G.O. Brathwaite (West Indies) and N. Duguid (West Indies).

TV UMPIRE: P. Gustard (West Indies).

MATCH REFEREE: R.B. Richardson (West Indies).

SECOND MATCH: Providence, Saturday (8:00pm PST).

THIRD MATCH: Providence, Sunday (8:00pm PST).

FOURTH MATCH: Providence, Tuesday (8:00pm PST).

Published in Dawn, July 29th, 2021